


The Games We Play

by nothingwithoutyouxo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: First Kiss, Light Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 03:23:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8561680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingwithoutyouxo/pseuds/nothingwithoutyouxo
Summary: “First rule of spin the bottle. If it lands on you, you have to kiss. No backing out.”There was a cheer from some of the circle, mostly just the boys. “Second rule,” he smirked, “No magic.”Or, the one where the Slytherin quidditch team convince Albus and Scorpius to play spin the bottle and disaster ensures.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So there I was just chilling on the bus on the way home from uni, listening to some music and then BOOM a fic prompt: spin the bottle. I hope you all enjoy this little one shot! :)  
> Oh, and they're in their fifth year if you were curious.

The Slytherin common room was abuzz with excited chatter. One of the seventh years had decided that it would be fun to play a game of spin the bottle. Everyone above the age of fifteen just  _ had _ to join. It would be funny, and hopefully awkward. Really everyone just wanted something to laugh over. The school year was getting busier and more stressful and they all just seemed to want a break. He was spinning an empty firewhisky bottle in his hands, something that one of his friends had snuck back from Hogsmeade (though it hadn’t been empty at the time). They’d decided as a group that it would be funny, but obviously they needed to get more people to play for maximum hilarity and excitement. So somehow most people in the older years had made a circle in the middle of the common room. Since there were so many of them the circle took up most the room. It had been getting late anyway, so most of the younger years had started heading up to bed. 

 

Albus wasn’t one for drinking games, whether there was alcohol involved or not. He’d heard too many stories from James about what happened over in Gryffindor house so he preferred to stay as far away from any of that as possible. But the rest of the quidditch team was playing and they were awfully good at trying to convince him to join as well.

 

“You know, Al, maybe we should. It’ll probably be fun,” Scorpius shrugged, standing up from his seat across the table from Albus.

 

“You know how I feel about these kind of games,” he muttered, not quite looking at his best friend. Maybe the thought of seeing Scorpius snogging some random person in their year wasn’t that pleasant for him. Not that he’d dwell on that. 

 

“The bottle might not even land on you anyway,” Scorpius smirked, “and you’d be worried about nothing.”

 

“I wasn’t aware you were so keen to snog everyone,” he returned his smirk, trying to shove away his thoughts. 

 

“It’s not about the snogging,” Scorpius laughed. “It’s just a bit of fun.”

 

Albus sighed and stood up as well. “Ok, fine.”

 

“You seem  _ so  _ enthusiastic,” he teased.

 

Albus just rolled his eyes in response. 

 

Scorpius nudged him gently. “It’ll be fine,” he smiled. “You can sit with the team.”

 

“You’re sitting with me too.”

 

“Your wish is my command,” he laughed. 

 

“Potter! Malfoy! Come over here if you’re coming,” someone called to them. 

 

Scorpius was more than happy when Albus finally seemed to agree and went and sat with the rest of the quidditch team. He sat down next to him, somehow finding himself excited for reasons he had no idea. It wasn’t like this game was anything to get excited about. It was just an excuse to snog someone you’d always wanted to but never been brave enough to. It gave you a reason. Scorpius looked at Albus out of the corner of his eyes. Maybe he’d had some kind of ulterior motive to this. He wasn’t really sure if he should give that any thought at all. 

 

“This is so very exciting,” one of the chaser’s said to Albus as he took a seat next to her.

 

“I really don’t know how I feel about it,” he replied.

 

“You could just enchant the bottle so it doesn’t stop of you,” she winked at him.

 

“Fair point.”

 

“Alright,” the seventh year clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention. “First rule of spin the bottle. If it lands on you, you have to kiss. No backing out.”

 

There was a cheer from some of the circle, mostly just the boys. 

 

“Second rule,” he smirked, “No magic.”

 

“Well there goes that idea,” Albus muttered. 

 

“It’ll be fine,” she smiled. 

 

“Who wants first spin?” he asked, eyes scanning the circle slowly. Albus avoided eye contact, that was definitely the way to approach this. If he just didn’t look at anyone then he’d practically turn invisible. Like he usually was. 

 

“Well it’s my bottle,” one of the seventh year boys shrugged, “Might as well.” His friends made a mock drum roll as he leaned forward and twirled the bottle. It spun around in a circle a few dozen times before stopping. The seventh year girl that it landed on looked less than pleased. She flicked her hair behind her shoulder absently. 

 

“Are you sure you didn’t enchant the bottle?” she asked, rolling her eyes at him.

 

“Of course not,” he smirked. “It’s just my lucky day.”

 

“Well let’s get this over with then.”

 

The kiss was fleeting but it seemed to leave the boy reeling. There was a cheer from the majority of the circle. 

 

“Great start. Who’s next?”

 

“Should we just go around the circle?” one of the girls asked.

 

“From the kisser or the kissee?” he asked.

 

“Does it matter?”

 

“I’ll just go,” the next girl in the circle said. She spun the bottle easily. It landed on a boy in the year below her. “Easy enough,” she shrugged. 

 

They continued like that, slowly making their way around the circle. The excitement amongst the students never seemed to subside. There were always cheers and laughter at incredibly awkward kisses and matches. There were more mock drum rolls during especially popular spins. There were ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ and ‘ewwws’ from multiple people around the circle. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

 

Albus was becoming incredibly aware that every kiss brought them all closer to Scorpius’ turn. For some reason that made him feel just a little bit sick. He didn’t really want to see Scorpius kiss some random person in the circle. Looking around the circle he decided absently that no one here deserved that anyway. No one was good enough for Scorpius. Maybe that was a selfish thought. Albus glanced over at his best friend. He seemed to be enjoying himself at least. Maybe that was a good thing.

 

“Malfoy, your turn,” someone said. 

 

Albus was snapped back into reality again. He looked over at Scorpius as he shrugged casually.

 

“Alright,” he said, reaching for the bottle. 

 

The bottle was sent spinning. Albus didn’t notice that most of the other students seemed to be sitting up straighter. If they weren’t on the floor they would be on the edge of their seats. He also didn’t notice when one of the sneaky seventh years casted a silent spell in the direction of the bottle. Fist bumping her friend next to her. The bottle slowed, for a moment almost seeming like it would stop in front of Scorpius before finally coming to a stop in front of Albus.

 

_ Oh _ , Albus thought. There was a loud “ohhhh” from the rest of the circle as Albus looked up at his best friend. Scorpius was laughing and somehow that didn’t make him feel any better.

 

“Well, for a second there I thought I was going to have to kiss myself,” he beamed. 

 

Albus wanted to disappear. He really did. He never should have agreed to this. He should have known this would happen. He did have terrible, terrible luck. If the thought of kissing Scorpius had been on his mind, and it  _ was _ something he’d been trying to deny to himself, he still didn’t want it to happen like this. There was some kind of accomplished sparkle in Scorpius’ eyes as he looked over at him and Albus wondered briefly if this was something he’d ever thought about as well. 

 

“Come here,” Scorpius smiled, leaning forward. He took Albus’ face gently in his hands and pressed their lips together. 

 

Albus forced his eyes shut and immediately clutched on the side of Scorpius’ shirt. He wanted so desperately to lose himself in this moment. Kissing Scorpius was all fireworks and elation and everything that he’d expected it would be. It was all consuming and part of him was desperately wishing it would never end, even though that was irrational. When Scorpius pulled away he was smiling and seemingly a little out of breath. He wanted so desperately to pull him in and kiss him again. Albus could hear the cheering of the rest of the circle, they were probably being a little too loud for this time of the evening. Scorpius laughed and Albus remembered that this was a joke. This entire thing. They were just best friends. Scorpius would have never felt what Albus did. Albus needed to leave. 

 

“Scorpius, I’m so sorry,” he muttered before getting up and running towards the exit of the common room. He heard Scorpius call his name after him, could hear the “oooohs” of the rest of the circle. Albus was almost glad that he knew one of his quidditch teammates would stop Scorpius from following him. 

 

“Let him go,” one of them said, placing a hand on Scorpius arm. 

 

“Did I do something wrong?” he asked her, confused.

 

“Albus just needs some space,” she offered.

 

Scorpius didn’t see than as an explanation.

 

***

 

It was after curfew for anyone who wasn’t a seventh year and if anyone caught him, Albus knew he’d be put into detention for the rest of the semester. But he didn’t care. He bolted his way through the castle, up all the staircases that seemed to still this time instead of making his trip harder by moving him into various corridors. Maybe they were on his side. Albus didn’t want to think about it. He ran down one last corridor, stopping in front of the Fat Lady’s portrait. 

 

“Password?” she asked bored, not even looking at him. 

 

“Balderdash,” he said. He’d heard someone say it just a few days ago as he’d waited for Rose to appear one morning. 

 

The Fat Lady gazed down at him. Obviously not recognising his voice as one of the Gryffindor students. Her eyes latched on his Slytherin tie immediately. “Wrong,” she answered.

 

“I need to see my cousin,” he muttered, desperate. “I know it’s the right password.” The password hadn’t changed yet. He knew that. 

 

“Wrong,” she repeated. 

 

“Please,” he tried. 

 

The Fat Lady rolled her eyes at him. “Only Gryffindors can enter the common room,” she said. 

  
“I know that. My entire family are Gryffindors,” he huffed. 

 

“But you are not one and so you cannot enter.”

 

Albus didn’t know why he was arguing with her. He wouldn’t have had a chance to enter, password or not. That much was obvious, but he was so incredibly desperate that he was willing to try anything at this stage. He just needed to see Rose, and tell her what had happened. 

 

“Albus?” he heard a voice. 

 

“James!” he called, relieved at the sight of his brother. “The worst thing in the world has happened,” he said.

 

James was carrying two textbooks and some parchment, obviously he and his friends were making their way back from the library. “It’s past curfew,” he said. “What are you doing up here?” James handed his textbooks to one of his friends. “Get Rose for me, will you,” he said. His friends nodded and entered the common room. 

 

“It was horrible,” Albus muttered. “I mean, it wasn’t  _ horrible _ but it was horrible.”

 

James closed the distance between him and his brother. Albus was hysterical, that much was obvious. He rested his hands on his brother’s shoulder to try and ground him. It was a technique that anyone close to Albus knew. “Breathe Albus,” he said, because he was shaking and not looking at him and he knew that meant that Albus was on his way to a panic. 

 

The Fat Lady’s portrait swung open again and Rose popped out from the common room. “Albus?” she asked, immediately making her way over to her cousins. “What happened?” she asked, voice gentle. 

 

“They thought it would be funny to play spin the bottle,” he smirked, laughing bitterly and staring at the ground instead of at either of them. 

 

James and Rose both sighed at that. James released Albus slowly and Rose pulled him into a hug.

 

“I’m sorry, Al,” she said.

 

“You have nothing to apologise for,” he muttered. “I should never have joined.”

 

“When I figure out who enchanted the bottle, I’ll give them a piece of my mind,” James declared.

 

“There was a no magic rule,” Albus pulled away, eyes flicking between his brother and cousin. “No one would have broken it, right?”

 

“For your sake, Al, I’ll say no,” Rose answered.

 

That didn’t seem to help. Albus seemed more on edge now. “What kind of spell do you think it was?” he asked.

 

“It would have been a seventh year,” James said. “Or someone very powerful.”

 

“Definitely a seventh year,” Rose nodded.

 

“Why did he feel nothing?” Albus asked.

 

Two pairs of sympathetic eyes locked onto him again. 

 

“Albus, there’s no way that he would have felt nothing,” Rose reassured. 

 

“He was laughing and it made it seem like it was a joke and I can’t help thinking that was all that it was to him. But I felt … a lot,” he muttered, looking away from both of them.

 

“Maybe you should try talking to him about it,” James suggested. “Communication is always the way to go.”

 

“I don’t think I want to see him anymore.”

 

“Albus don’t lie to yourself,” Rose nudged him. 

 

The Fat Lady’s portrait popped open again and Lily made her way over to them. 

 

“Someone woke me and told me that my brother was yelling hysterically at the portrait so I decided that this was something I definitely had to see. What happened?” she asked appearing next to them. Truly she’d thought that it would have been a drunk James but as her eyes noticed how upset Albus was she softened. Albus was twisting his hands in front of him, avoiding all of their eyes and staring pointedly at the ground instead. 

 

“Spin the bottle,” James said.

 

“What?”

 

“The assumption is that Scorpius felt nothing,” Rose filled her in.

 

“Oh you’ve got be kidding me,” she sighed. 

 

“Maybe I shouldn’t have come up here because you three aren’t making me feel any better,” Albus said.

 

“What makes you think he felt nothing?” Lily asked.

 

“Apparently he laughed after the kiss,” James answered.

 

“So? How many people were playing? He probably felt uncomfortable with all the other people there.”

 

“Lily makes a good point,” Rose smiled.

 

“Talk to him about it,” she encouraged. “It’ll help clear the air.”

 

***

 

Scorpius hadn’t seen Albus since the night before. When he woke up the next morning, Albus’ bed was already empty. For some reason that was just a little unsettling. Maybe he really shouldn’t have convinced him to play spin the bottle. All of this could have been avoided if he just offered to stay out of it, regardless of how much the quidditch team were trying to convince them both. When he walked into the Great Hall that morning part of him was still hoping that Albus would be there, and that everything would be fine between the two of them, but he just found Rose sitting by herself. There was a cup of tea sitting in front of her and when she looked up at him from that morning’s  _ Daily Prophet  _ there was about a thousand questions in her eyes. He just assumed that she hadn’t seen Albus either. He’d have to go looking for him later. That would take most of the day. Albus was good at hiding. When he didn’t want to be found there was a good chance he wouldn’t be. 

 

“So how was spin the bottle?” Rose asked him. She was trying to be casual but he could see the worry in her eyes. 

  
“A grave mistake,” he answered, enchanting a mug to make a coffee for him so he could drop his head into his hands. 

 

“Albus hasn’t spoken to you then?”

 

“I haven’t seen him since he ran off last night, but if you know about it then the rumours must be spreading pretty quickly,” he shrugged.

 

“Well when Albus ran off last night be decided it would be a good idea to yell at the portrait of the Fat Lady until she let him in,” Rose explained.

 

“Into Gryffindor?” Scorpius looked up at her, confused. 

 

“Yep. James found him. Quite the sight, or so I hear,” she said.

 

“Was he ok?”

 

“Well, no. He was hysterical.”

 

Scorpius rubbed at his eyes absently. “I should never have done this,” he muttered. “I’ve ruined everything, haven’t I?”

 

“Look, I don’t want to tell you things that Albus should be telling you himself. You two need to have a conversation.”

 

“If I could find him.”

 

“He’s at the quidditch pitch,” Rose rolled her eyes. “He’s being angsty and throwing quaffles at the goal posts even though he’d never reach them without a broom.”

 

“That’s ridiculous.”

 

“That’s Albus for you.”

 

Scorpius smiled faintly at that. “You’re right,” he said.

 

“I always am,” she beamed.

 

He rolled his eyes at her and she laughed.

 

“I’m sure you had good intentions last night,” she said. “You just need to convince him that you did.”

 

“What did he say to you?” Scorpius asked.

 

“I can’t tell you, Scorp. I’m sorry, you need to talk to him yourself.”

 

Scorpius nodded slowly. “I guess I don’t blame you for your loyalty.”

 

“It’s one of my more shining qualities,” she smirked. 

 

“Quidditch pitch, right?” he asked, rolling his eyes at her again.

 

She nodded. “Good luck,” she said. “You know how he gets when he’s like this.”

 

“Do you think I’ll be able to get through to him?”

 

“Through to him, on top of him, under him. It’s whatever you want, really,” she teased.

 

“Gross,” he muttered.

 

“I’m just messing with you Scorpius. Go,” she laughed, leaning across the table to give him a little push. 

 

“See you later,” Scorpius replied, standing up. 

 

“Bye,” she smiled, turning back to the  _ Prophet _ .

 

***

 

“You know, this is quite an elaborate way to avoid me!” Scorpius called as he steadily made his way across the quidditch pitch towards Albus. He saw his best friend freeze at the sound of his voice. He didn’t turn to face him, which was definitely not a good sign. “You know, I thought that you would be up in the astronomy tower but fortunately Rose knows you that little bit better than I do. It would have been quite the walk otherwise,” he continued, coming to a stop next to Albus.

 

“What do you want?” Albus asked, turning to face him but not quite looking at him.

 

“What do I  _ want _ ?” Scorpius asked. “Is that how we talk to each other now?”

 

“The point of avoiding you is that I don’t really want to talk to you,” Albus muttered.

 

“Albus, if I’ve done something to upset you I’d much rather that we talk about it.”

 

Albus looked up at him and Scorpius had never seen him so guarded. They’d never truly had reason to hide anything from each other. Not until now, it seemed. “You seemed to enjoy yourself last night,” he said.

 

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

 

“Laughing and everything you definitely seemed to be having a great time.”

 

“Al -”

 

“You really know how to make a guy feel special, you know.”

  
“Albus -”

 

“It really felt like it meant nothing to you.”

 

“Albus would you listen to me for a minute!” Scorpius grabbed onto his shoulders. “Dammit, Albus, of course it didn’t mean nothing to me.”

 

“Then what was it?” he asked, his composure slipping away.

 

“I wanted to kiss you. I convinced you to play just so I would have a chance of kissing you, because I’ve been too nervous to bring it up,” Scorpius explained. 

 

“What?” Albus muttered, dumbfounded.

 

“I know we’re best friends and this might be risking everything, and I definitely didn’t go about this the right way but -” Scorpius paused, dropping his hands from Albus’ shoulders carefully. “I guess, what I’m trying to say is I think of you as more than just my best friend.”

 

Albus looked at him for a moment, just looked. He was trying to think of the right words to say, because that wasn’t something that he wasn’t expecting to hear from Scorpius. At least, not in reality. “I felt fireworks,” he muttered, “last night. I know it’s cliche but I felt fireworks and I didn’t want it to end.”

“It really doesn’t have to,” Scorpius smiled. “I mean-”

 

Albus didn’t let him finish his sentence, instead surging forward and crushing their lips together. He wrapped his arms around Scorpius’ neck and pulled him closer, smiling into the kiss as he felt Scorpius’ arm wrap around his waist. He laughed when he pulled away, still holding onto Scorpius.

 

“Whoa,” Scorpius muttered. 

 

“Go out with me,” Albus said. “I mean, date me. I mean-”

 

Scorpius cut him off with a quick kiss, laughing. He rested his forehead again Albus’ gently. “I’m yours, Albus Potter,” he said. “Is that what you meant?”

 

“Yeah. That sounds about right.”

 

***

 

When her two friends returned, hand in hand Rose said nothing. She just smiled at the two of them, happy that they’d finally gotten what they’d seemingly always wanted. Each other. 

**Author's Note:**

> I strongly believe that Albus Potter would be the angstiest kid to ever live (aside from his father). He's totally the type to slam his bedroom door and put MCR on really loudly when he's angry.  
> Alas, this was so fun to write. Enjoy your day/night everyone :)


End file.
